"Demoralised" Portiuncula consultant speaks out

Consultant physician at Portiuncula Hospital Dr John Barton has said this week that he is considering emigrating due to the state of the health service in this country, branding what is happening in the western area at present as unsafe and bad practice. Dr Barton, who has worked at the Ballinasloe hospital for the past 20 years, has already taken measures to reduce his outpatient clinics in the new year due to the pressure he is under at the hospital, which he says is a reduction in service for his patients. Describing how he feels about the situation in Portiuncula and the wider health service, he said he was "at his most demoralised state in 20 years". "I say that with hand on heart and a with a heavy heart," he said. "The strategy of closing smaller hospitals and putting patients into ambulances and onto trolleys is wrong. From a human perspective it is disgusting. I find it increasingly difficult to look at patients on trolleys, it's disgusting." He explained that there are four consultant physicians at the hospital, all of whom are under immense pressure, particularly since the closure of the emergency department at Roscommon County Hospital in the summer. "My three colleagues and I recently met with management. We indicated to management that unless we get support, and by support I mean from higher people in the HSE in this region, we would have to consider a very dramatic reduction in the service we provide," he explained. He said in his own case he has already instructed his secretary that he will only be taking 15 patients during his Tuesday morning out-patient clinics in the new year, although he currently sees about 30 to 35 patients during these clinics. He explained that he took this decision about five weeks ago when he received a call on a Tuesday morning informing him that there were 18 patients on trolleys and asking him to sort it out. On that occasion he ended up sending his registrar to the emergency department and he saw his patients but he then told his secretary to cut his out-patients in the new year. "That is a cut to the service for people. I am going to continue to slash the service. I am not going to continue working in this hospital without support. If things keep going I will be off to Australia or New Zealand," he said. "It's not safe, it's bad practice and somebody has to take responsibility for closing Roscommon and shoving the work onto four physicians and asking them to do more work. We are deeply unhappy. For the first time in my life I kept emails from a recruitment agency in the UK where they are looking for physicians in New Zealand and Australia. I'm four years from retirement and why should I continue to bust my ass day in, day out? It's unacceptable. "I've developed a good service here and after 20 years I've had to cut back on the service that I built up," added Dr Barton. He said the pressure on him and his colleagues in the medical department is worse since Roscommon emergency department was closed and said: "I think the sudden closure of the department in Roscommon was a disgrace." Dr Barton added: "We are at the pin of our collars, particularly on the medical side and since Roscommon closed. They should be moving the financial resources from Roscommon to Portiuncula. I know for a fact that doctors in Roscommon have much less work than they had previously. Why isn't the resource moved? If they close a certain resource in a hospital then the resource should be moved and it's not being moved. The local HSE director of operations should order that. To my knowledge that's not happening." Asked how the hospital could make savings if it is to come in on budget by the end of the year, Dr Barton said the only way for it to save money was close theatres and wards and to put temporary staff out on holidays. He added that he doesn't care if he is berated by his party (Fine Gael) for speaking out. "I don't care if it embarrasses the government, my own government. I'm not saying I do everything right. I do what I can. I run a very tight ship. When you ask someone who runs a tight ship to do 20% more work something's got to give. Dr Barton is not terribly far away from saying 'I'm going to exit'," he said. He added: "What we have now is a legacy of Mary Harney and those before her. It is disgusting and grossly unfair on the people, throwing 80 and 90 year olds in the backs of ambulances and driving them up and down the country and then back to Roscommon the next day."